It was a gusty day at Tam pool Saturday, but the
weather didn’t slow the pace of the Strawberry Seals
swimmers, and they prevailed over SwiMarin, 446-106. Three Seals
team records and one Tam pool record fell in the process.

The records set were those that seem to have become a
habit for these hardy Seals, includin gthe boys and girls 11-12 100
individual medley and the boys 11-12 50 butterfly. Caitlin (Coco)
Quill improved on her own time from last week in the 11-12 girls
100 I.M. to set a new Seals team mark with a 1:08.44, while Marre
Gattnar bettered his own time in the 100 I.M. to 1:04.78, setting
both a new Seals and Tam pool record. The Tam pool record stood
only a year, as Jacob Dixon set it last year with a 1:07.08.
Gattnar also set a Seals team record in the 50 fly with a 28.74,
bettering a time that stood since 1986, when Galen Abbot swam a
28.84.

The biggest victories, though, came in events that
were not record-setting, and sometimes, not even events. The first
major contribution of the day came from 13-year-old Maddie
Uhlhorn-Thornton who took it into her own hands to help Coach Sarah
Zarrehparvar wrangle the 8-and-unders during their warm-up. Maddie
was also the leader of the Relay Team Captains, recruiting and
leading relay captains throughout the meet.

There were also some special personal bests. Memorable
on Saturday was 10-year-old girl Naomi Jumper, who arrived at the
meet a bundle of nerves, needing a pep talk to actually do her
races. What a pep talk it was, as Naomi went on to place second in
her heat in her first event of the 50 freestyle, bettering her best
time by 4 seconds.

Holden Freas in the 9-10 boys also had banner swim in
the 50 free, dropping a full 6 seconds off his best time. Holden
also scored points for the Seals by swimming the freestyle in the
team’s C medley relay, edging out both the SwiMarin and Seals
B relays.

Hailey Moll in the 13-14 girls had a nice day in the
pool as well, swimming in the third heat of the 50 fly and
finishing the event in first place overall, and also finishing
first in the 100 IM. And it was nice to have Hailey’s sister,
Abby, back now that the high school swim season is over, along with
all the other high schoolers who came back strong as Seals.

A few first-year swimmers also had nice outings. Owen
Lanyon set two personal records in the 9-10 events, bettering his
50 free by 9 seconds and his 50 backstroke by 11 seconds. And
8-and-under boy Nate Tyler turned in three best times: dropping 5
seconds off his 25 free, and swimming the 25 back and the 25 breast
for his first time. Santiago Del Placio did his part for setting a
personal best, shaving a whopping 11 second off his 50 breaststroke
time.

Sierra Chang, an 8-and-under girl, won the
perseverance award of the day, not so much for her three best times
throughout the day, but the fact that she remained suited- and
goggled-up until the final freestyle relays were posted. With too
few swimmers left to join her, Sierra’s relay was scratched,
but she remained nonetheless, staying behind the blocks in case
there were any other missing kids for the event.

And finally, the heat of the meet was heat five of the
8-and-under boys 25 free, with four swimmers – Rio Gattnar,
Julian Maybury, Isaac Kasavin and James Plotts – all swimming
best times. With Rio dropping 8 seconds, Julian 5 seconds, Isaac 3
seconds and James 7 seconds, it made for a total of 23 seconds
simply vanishing into the ether of the chlorine fumes.

This Saturday, the Strawberry Seals head to the cozy
confines of the Marinwood pool to take on the Waterdevils.